đźš© Tactical Memo 014: Taking Back Control of Your Task List
Justin Bateh
September 21, 2025
In partnership with
Modernize Out Of Home with AdQuick
AdQuick unlocks the benefits of Out Of Home (OOH) advertising in a way no one else has. Approaching the problem with eyes to performance, created for marketers and creatives with the engineering excellence you’ve come to expect for the internet.
You can learn more at www.AdQuick.com
Read time: 6 minutes
Welcome to Tactical Memo, my newsletter where I share frameworks, strategies, and hard-earned lessons for leaders navigating complex environments.
If you’re looking for my cheat sheets and deep-dive guides, the vault is linked at the bottom of this email.
The Briefing: Today’s Focus
Why Leaders End Up With Impossible Task Lists
The Rule: Tasks Multiply, Time Doesn’t
A Tactical Playbook: How to Shrink, Sort, and Control Your List
What’s Happening: General Updates
A Reader’s Question: Escaping the Trap of the 200-Item To-Do List
Why Leaders End Up With Impossible Task Lists
Most leaders treat their task list as proof of productivity. They keep adding, tracking, and managing until the list itself becomes unmanageable.
Three reasons this happens:
Input overload. Everyone else’s priorities flow into your list because you are seen as capable.
No filter. Everything gets equal weight, from critical board deliverables to minor admin.
Illusion of capacity. Writing it down tricks you into believing you might actually do it all.
The result: your list grows faster than you can execute. You live in constant triage mode.
The truth is simple: you will never finish your list. The game is not completing everything. The game is making sure the right things get done.
The Rule: Tasks Multiply, Time Doesn’t
Tasks expand without limit. Time does not. That means the only rational move is ruthless compression.
If your list has 200 items, the vast majority are noise. A handful carry disproportionate impact. Your job is not to manage the whole list. Your job is to extract the critical 5–10% and build your week around them.
A Tactical Playbook: How to Shrink, Sort, and Control Your List
Here is the step-by-step system I use with leaders facing overwhelming lists.
Step 1. Run the Brutal Audit
Take your current task list. For each item, ask:
If this never happened, would it matter in 90 days?
Does this task directly connect to one of my top three priorities?
If the answer is no, strike it off. Yes, delete it. Most lists shrink by 30–40% here.
Step 2. Separate Tasks by Altitude
Divide what’s left into three buckets:
Strategic outcomes (big moves, long-term impact).
Operational obligations (approvals, updates, stakeholder touchpoints).
Noise (admin, small favors, low-visibility busywork).
This makes the invisible visible. Once you see the breakdown, it becomes clear where you are overspending energy.
Step 3. Apply the 3D Filter: Do, Delegate, Drop
For every operational and noise item, run this filter:
Do → If it is critical and fast (<10 minutes), finish it immediately.
Delegate → Assign to someone else with clear context.
Drop → Delete or ignore. If it matters, it will resurface.
Your list now consists mostly of high-leverage items.
Step 4. Convert Tasks Into Time Blocks
Tasks sitting on a list are abstract. Tasks assigned to your calendar are real.
Move the 5–10 highest leverage items onto your calendar as blocked time. Everything else is optional. If it doesn’t earn a slot, it doesn’t get done.
Step 5. Establish the Daily Reset
At the end of each day:
Review your list.
Carry forward only what is essential.
Delete the rest.
This keeps the list from ballooning again. Without a reset, entropy always wins.
What’s Happening – General Updates
🙇 Registration for Cohort 4 of the AI-Powered Project Management cohort is open. This course shows leaders how to combine project execution with AI, and equips you with the exact playbooks you need to stay indispensable. It’s ranked the #1 Project Management course on Maven Learning and carries a 4.8/5 student rating.
⚡Join me for a free lightning lesson on Thursday, Sept 25th at 11:00 AM EST, where I will cover How AI Can 10x Your Project Delivery Speed. Learn how top leaders are using AI to cut timelines, reduce chaos, and deliver faster without micromanaging. Y
The Briefing: Reader’s Question
Q: “I have more than 200 tasks sitting in my system right now. Some are six months old. I keep trying new methods, priority flags, color codes, apps, but the list never shrinks. Honestly, I avoid looking at it because it stresses me out. I feel like I am failing at basic organization. How do I dig out of this hole without spending an entire week cleaning up?”
A: First, you are not failing. You are dealing with a system that rewards adding faster than subtracting. Task lists are designed to capture, not to filter. Here is a creative reset you can run in under an hour.
The “Fresh Start” Folder. Move your entire 200-item list into a folder called Backlog – Review Later. Start with a clean slate.
The “Active Ten.” Each morning, pull no more than 10 items from the backlog into your active list. These are the only things you will even look at.
The “Friday Burn.” Every Friday, scan the backlog. If you have not touched an item in 30 days, delete it. Trust me: if it was critical, someone will remind you.
The “Calendar Test.” Any item that sits on your list for more than a week must either be scheduled into a calendar block or deleted. If it is not worth time on your calendar, it is not worth your attention.
Reward Progress, Not Completion. Each week, count how many items you prevented from coming back onto the list, not just how many you finished. This builds momentum.
This system flips the psychology. Instead of drowning in 200 tasks, you are only ever facing ten. The backlog becomes a holding pen, not a daily burden. Within a month, the stress of the list evaporates and you finally regain control.
Cheat Sheet Vault
p.s… As promised, click below for my free cheat sheet and infographic vault
Until next time,
Justin
✍️ From the Desk of Justin Bateh, PhD
Real-world tactics. No fluff. Just what works.
